Tunnel of Oppression Revisits Texas Tech Campus

Students experience different forms of oppression through acting, monologues and presentations.

For the ninth year, Texas Tech University is hosting the Tunnel of Oppression, an event where students are immersed first-hand in different forms of oppression
through interactive acting, hearing monologues and multimedia presentations.

The Tunnel is from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 22 and 23 in the Red Raider Ballroom
at the Student Union Building. Tours begin every 10 minutes and take between 45 and
60 minutes to complete. Due to limited space, reservations are recommended, but walk-ins
are welcome.

“The purpose of the event is to expose students to the fact that oppression and discrimination
do occur at Texas Tech and in Lubbock, but there is something the community can do
about it,” said Dustin Grabsch, residence life coordinator.

In the Tunnel, participants face different scenes of oppression, including: ability,
class, body image, immigration, homophobia, religious oppression, relationship violence,
sexism and race. The scenes are derived from actual student experiences on the Texas
Tech campus and in Lubbock.

Texas Tech students volunteer and act out the different scenes throughout the Tunnel.
Debrief facilitators are graduate students, full-time staff, faculty or counselors.

After going through the Tunnel and experiencing different forms of oppression, a
debriefing session is held, in which a trained facilitator explains to participants
what they witnessed and how they can interrupt forms of discrimination and oppression
in the future.

“The level of dialogue and sharing by tunnel participants after they go through it
is outstanding,” Grabsch said, “The experience is very eye-opening for many and it’s
great to hear about their innovative action plans to stop future acts of oppression
and bias here at Texas Tech and in Lubbock.”

The Tunnel is a campus grassroots diversity program originating in 1993 at Western
Illinois University. The campus used the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles as a
model.

“The Tunnel of Oppression pushes people’s boundaries as they go through it while
eliciting discussion,” Louder said. “It opened the student’s eyes to see different
things and was a rich opportunity for growth in the students.”